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- "It is time to close the gate…
"It is time to close the gate."
Translation:È ora di chiudere il cancello.
35 Comments
Can someone please explain if there's a specific time to put an article like "di" in front of infinitives I have yet to find a method to this madness. Per Favore
I would also like to know this. And also, which article do we need, "di," "a," "per"?
Agreed. There is simply no teaching, is there? It is so frustrating, and a waste of valuable time.
Not only is there no germane info about prepositions here, this unit is for learning about infinitives not prepositions. Yet this exercise is all about prepositions.
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I am still hoping someone will explain when to use "di" or "per" or "a" before an infinitive. Does anybody know if there is a rule or if it is idiomatic?
It's to do with what verb is used to introduce the infinitive. I think you do have to learn it case-by-case - here are some links to help:
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/6060401 http://italian.about.com/od/verbs/a/aa031908a.htm
I learned more in 10 minutes from those links than I have done in ten days on Duolingo! Thanks
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So here we have a sentence that, if you were to try and translate literally, would say, "It is time OF to close the gate." For me, as a memory tool, this works because it is relatable to "time of day," "time of life," "time of the morning," etc... But recalling another sentence in this exercise, if I were to say, "You are too young to close the gate." would the "di" change to "per?" I believe the question I'm asking is, does the preposition depend upon what precedes it and not the verb that follows?
"Ora" here is the time of day, as in "It's late, it's time to close the gate", while "tempo" is more generic, as in "It's autumn, it's time to bring out the coats". It's not wrong to use tempo here, it just has a more formal or literary feel to it.
Point taken (and thanks) f.formica but if it's not absolutely wrong why was my: "È il tempo per chiudere la porta" marked wrong? And porta can mean gate can't it? I take it that cancello maybe refers in particular to those remote control things some folks have but without any context I couldn't know DL was thinking of that. I haven't reported this as possibly wrong since I'm replying to you, a mod. all the best.
I think it has more to do with "per": it's mostly used to introduce purpose (or a medium) so in this case it goes to mean "it's the time (it takes) to close the gate".
Porta can indeed mean gate, at least in some instances, like the city gates; the difference in Italian has more to do with its appearance than anything, as "porta" generally refers to a single piece and "cancello" to a composite structure (e.g. steel bars) so you can usually see through a "cancello", while you can only see through the keyhole in a "porta". That's hardly the case for the city gates though.
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hey, while you're here can you please give us some hints or resources on how to choose the right preposition before the infinitves. it would be very much appreciated!
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È il momento di chiudere la porta was not accepted. An almost identical sentence, with cancello instead of porta, was offered as aon official correct translation. I guess "porta" here should be fine, but it is not (yet) in the coded set of accepted answers.
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I think it must be the 'il' tempo because i put 'è il tempo di chiudere il cancello' and was marked wrong but given 'è tempo di chiudere il cancello' as correct.
I put "è tempo di chiudere il cancello" and was marked wrong.
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È il tempo di chiudere il cancello. Marked wrong. I guess "il tempo" is not grammatically correct. Any native Italian speakers input appreciated!
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For those, like me, that is struggling with a, da, per before infinitives this might help get some kind of a grip : https://www.thoughtco.com/italian-verbs-and-prepositions-2011671
In some sentences before it uses da as to then here it uses di as to sometimes a and per so?!!!!!
Whether to use di, a, da or per where the English has "to" followed by an infinitive depends on what precedes that infinitive, and on how that infinitive is used. It does not in general depend on which infinitive it is.
There are some general guidelines, but there are many exceptions. per is generally used where the sense is "in order to" (ie carry out the infinitive, eg mi sono fermato per fumare = "I stopped for a smoke"). da is often used where the sense is something like "for the purpose of" (+ Infinitive) eg troppo piccolo da leggere = "too small to read")
di and a (which together make up the majority of cases) are less easily categorised eg when you start doing something you cominciare/iniziare a + Inf, but when you stop or finish doing it you smettere/finire di + Inf. You just have to get used to these.
Modal verbs (like volere, dovere, sapere) and impersonal constructions usually omit any preposition (eg è difficile capire = "it is difficult to understand"), but the present sentence provides a salutary exception (è ora di fare qualcosa = "it is time to do something"). Basically the moral is: expect the unexpected.
duolingo's idiosyncrasies has made learning a language more frustrating than productive
See eg my reply to a poster named shit.... just above. The short answer is that there is unfortunately no straightforward reliable rule on this.
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that doesn't depend on the verb "chiudere" but on the verb or expression that you have before it. so, you don't have to learn if it's with or without "di", you have to learn which verbs or words need "di" after them, not only with "chiudere", but with the other similar verbs, too.
for example "bisogna" (impersonal) needs no "di" and it will be: bisogna chiudere la porta. but, "abbiamo bisogno" needs "di" and it will be: abbiamo bisogno di chiudere la porta (we need to close the door). the verb "aspettare" needs "a", so, the order to wait instead of closing it immediately will be: aspetta a chiudere la porta. and so on...
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Thanks:) Do you know any site/on-line tutorial, where these verbs and their verses are listed? At least the most important. Duolingo not so helpful about it
If you google eg "italian verbs with prepositions" you should find lots of sites with this information. For example https://learnamo.com/en/verbs-prepositions-italian/.
